Feeders are used on component mounters that mount components on circuit boards (patent literature 1). The feeder rotates a sprocket that engages with indexing holes formed at regular intervals in the conveyance direction of the carrier tape so as to index carrier tape inserted into an insertion section in the conveyance direction along a rail. By this, the feeder supplies components to a removal section such that the components can be picked up by a component mounter.
Also, carrier tape is set such that the sprocket is rotated after the carrier tape has been inserted to a specified position at which the sprocket can engage with the indexing holes of the carrier tape. Disclosed in patent literature 2 is a non-splicing feeder that, when replenishing carrier tape to a feeder that is being used by a component mounter, enables continuous supply of components without the need to connect (splice) in-use carrier tape and replenishment carrier tape.
With the non-splicing feeder, replenishment carrier tape is inserted from the insertion section of the feeder to a specified position such that the replenishment carrier tape is on top of the in-use carrier tape. When the tail end of the in-use carrier tape passes the specified position, the replenishment carrier tape is pushed by a rail such that the sprocket engages with the indexing holes. Thus, the replenishment carrier tape is indexed by the rotation of the sprocket.